Parade to celebrate 200th birthday of Father of Fatherland

Saturday, January 26 the 200th birthday of Juan Pablo Duarte was celebrated. Juan Pablo Duarte is the founder and ‘father of the fatherland’, who in 1844 together with Ramón Mella and Francisco Sánchez, drove back the Haitian occupiers and proclaimed the (first) independent Dominican Republic (República Dominicana). Until today, Duarte is a symbol of ‘freedom’ and many streets, buildings, bridges and the highest mountain in the country bear his name. In the early hours of Thursday morning, a solemn mass in the Catholic church in Charamicos was dedicated to him. Then the students of different schools marched through the streets Charamicos. Normally, the parade always marches through the streets of El Batey, but this year like last year they didn’t.